First Impressions
by EyesOnTheMoon
Summary: What if Ariadne and Arthur were to meet before Ariadne's first dream? Is it love at first sight? Or a disaster? A contest entry for Deviantart. ArthurxAriadne? Read to find out... R


**Okay, so this is my contest entry for an axa fan group over on Deviantart and after I was done submitting it there, I thought, "why not post it on fanfiction?" So now here I am doing so. So I hope you enjoy! And yes I had to fix all the punctuation in the story, I hadn't even realized anything was wrong until Jane Daisy pointed it out to me. So SORRY to anyone who had to read the story in that horrible format (I know _I_ would have been livid) and Thanks a bunch to Jane Daisy for pointing it out. ^^ ONWARD!**

First Impressions.

It was midday.  
Quiet footsteps echoed as they crossed the floor in the large spacious room.  
Sunlight poured in from the windows along the far walls, filling the room with light.  
There were a few desks and chairs scattered about the warehouse, with no real pattern or sense of reason. They looked old, worn out and used, which was probably the case. The same could be said for the walls and floors.  
The footsteps slowed, they were light and hesitant.

"So...this...is where...you work?" Ariadne asked uncertainly, from where she stood in the center of the room, it didn't look like much. And she was doubtful it was going to get any better.  
"Well, it's not the best piece of real estate I'll admit," said Cobb, who was standing a few feet behind her with his hands in his pockets, looking relaxed and comfortable. "But it's cheap, remote, and easy to access," he stated, and in a lower voice added, "and escape if necessary."Ariadne had only been half listening to him as she looked around the room, wondering what this job was supposed to be, why she was needed, and why it was shrouded in a thick cloud of mystery. By the time she started to actually listen to what he was saying, she had just barely managed to hear the last part.  
"What do you mean esca-" She started to ask, whirling around to glare at Cobb, but he interrupted her. "Now to learn more about the working conditions you'll be facing, I'll need you to take a seat on one of those lawn chairs over there and then we'll-" Both were taken off guard by the sudden sound of the doorknob being unlocked; Ariadne had not been expecting anyone else to show up at this 'job interview'.  
The door opened.

In the doorway stood a man, he was young, thin and a bit taller than average. From what Ariadne could tell from her position in the center of the room, far from the doorway, was that he wore what could only be described as a surprised expression on his face. '_Guess he hadn't expected anyone to be here either_,' she thought, '_maybe he's lost_.' It defiantly looked that way; he was dressed in a smart three piece suit (even though it was a Saturday), his hair slicked back professionally, with a satchel slung over his shoulder. He was holding himself in a way that looked so arrogant and proud it made Ariadne convinced that there had to be a large pole stuck far up his ass.  
All in all, he looked like he belonged more in a fancy bank or office building somewhere, yet here he was in a dingy old warehouse. Maybe he really **was** lost.

"Arthur? What are you doing here?" Cobb asked mildly, recovering quickly from being momentarily startled. You don't have to work for at least three more hours. '_Okay, so he does work here_,' Ariadne thought surprised, '_but he looks like such a stiff, I never would've guessed_.'

"I forgot some papers with information on the mark that needed to be looked over, so I came in early to get them. I didn't think you would have been here so soon." Arthur explained to Cobb.

'_A workaholic_?' Adriane thought, '_that pole just got bigger._'

Just then Arthur's eyes flickered over to where she was standing and his eyebrows shot up in surprise, as if he had finally just acknowledged her presence. She had failed to notice that while the two men had been talking, Arthur had moved from his position in the doorway and was now standing next to Cobb. Which wasn't too far from where she was in the room, she realized belatedly.

Arthur gave her a quick once over, a fast glance from head to toe. His eyes looked calculative as he did this and she was sure that he had analyzed every component of her being in those few seconds it took his eyes to reach her feet and back to her face again. The whole thing was so scrutinizing, that Ariadne momentarily felt like she was back in school; like she was a blueprint and was in the process of being graded. Which was silly considering it would be coming from a man she hadn't even spoken two words to.

After he was done with his brief inspection, his gaze flickered over to Cobb and then back to her. He gave her a strange look. As if he hadn't been impressed with what he'd seen. Stranger still, was when she happened to make eye contact with him. Suddenly she found herself staring into a set of handsome deep brown eyes. She felt her heart skip a beat.

But if she were to be honest, it felt more like several.

Arthur didn't understand.

Cobb had told him that he would be spending the day recruiting a new architect since Nash was obviously no longer available. Arthur had assumed that meant he would be bringing back a reasonable, responsible, and professional looking adult. Not a child. Oh, he knew that this new architect Cobb was after was going to be a student from the Paris University; a place Cobb himself had once studied. A wise choice Arthur agreed, young students are always willing to take a job they can make loads of money doing. '_A very effective way to pay off student loans_,' Arthur remembered. Those loans had been the original reason he had agreed to his first job, before he realized what the job enabled him to do. Afterwards, working jobs to pay those loans became an excuse.

But he hadn't expected the new recruit to be so young. Neither did he expect her to be female. Not that it mattered but it always seemed that there weren't too many women involved in the business of dreaming. There had been Mal but she was gone. The only other woman Arthur knew of was not actually a woman but a man named Eames.  
Arthur hoped he never saw that man again in his life.  
Much less work with him again.

Anyways, he didn t see how this new recruit was going to work out. She was too young, Arthur wondered if she had even been taught enough about architecture to be of any use, or if they could even trust her. '_No_,' Arthur thought shaking himself mentally; _'Cobb knows what he's doing. And if he thinks she's good enough for the job, I'll just have to believe him_.'

Still frustrated with himself for being wrong in his assumptions, he turned to address Cobb once again. He took one last look in the young woman's direction and was suddenly met with a view of the most beautiful brown eyes. The words he was about to say to Cobb died in his throat and for a few seconds all he could feel was his heart pound and hammer away in his chest. But before he could give himself anytime to think about it he reminded himself there was still work to do, a lot of work; and none of it was getting done with him just standing there. It was time to get down to business.

"So this, I would assume is the new architect," Arthur said to Cobb, nodding his head in the direction of Ariadne. He said this as if it were a fact, not a question. He sounded so sure of himself; like she d already gotten the job, like it was a done deal. She felt the blood rush to her face in anger.

Before she could even open her mouth to argue about being hired for a job she knew nothing about, could potentially be arrested for, and hadn't even agreed to, Cobb interrupted yet again.  
"Sorry, I should have introduced you two sooner, Arthur this is Ariadne. Ariadne this is Arthur." He motioned them to each other with his hand as he said their names. As he did so, Arthur slowly began making his way over to where Ariadne stood in the room. "In this particular field of work, Arthur's position is known as the Pointman. He s in charge of all the research and information, and makes sure everything runs smoothly."

"Welcome to the team," Arthur said coolly, he now stood directly in front of Ariadne; he then politely held out a hand for a handshake. Ariadne looked down at the hand, cautious of what it might mean if she shook it. Would it make his statement official? Because she wasn't going to get involved in any kind of job without knowing a single thing about it. But she could see no way around shaking the hand; it would be rude not to accept the greeting. Though she disliked the thought of signing onto job with no knowledge of it, she absolutely hated the idea of completely losing her chance of receiving the job over a little handshake. So with that in mind, she moved to take his hand and as she did she said, "I haven t agreed to be on any team just yet."

_'That will teach that arrogant prick to make assumptions_,' she thought with a smile. Meanwhile Arthur was thinking, _'What a rude person, working with this child is not going to be fun.'_

To anyone looking in on this scene, it would appear obvious that these two were not going to get along. Hell, maybe they d even become enemies. Their views of each other were so full of prejudices and contempt, that it would seem likely they'd never change. Even as they were about to have their first handshake, just one simple greeting, they were already glaring daggers at each other. Surely their co-worker relationship was doomed to be a miserable and frustrating experience.

But then their hands touched.

Instantaneously, an incredibly warm, electric and powerful feeling burst out of their hands, up their arms and into their hearts. The sheer force of this feeling left them both breathless. Hair stood on end as the warmth continued to fill their bodies completely with its strength. Both were at a loss of words, they could only stand where they were, silent and unmoving. The warmth coursed through their blood, shocking the veins with its electrical energy. They let their hearts hammer away in their chests, pounding so hard it was like they were trying to escape. It was as if time stood still, they looked at each other with fresh eyes and hearts, their past judgements forgotten in the dust.

You could say it was a cosmic, earth-shattering, spectacular moment.

Then there was a cough, loud and awkward.

Instantly both snapped back to reality, Cobb was standing awkwardly off to the side, his eyes looking quizzically back and forth from Arthur's face to Ariadne's. "Um Adriane if you could just come with me," he said as he motioned to a desk with a silver briefcase. "I'd like to show you a device that will be vital to you during your work on this job. Oh and Arthur? Could you do me a favour and move those lawn chairs over there closer to the PASIV?"

They then realized with embarrassment that they'd been standing there holding hands far too long to be considered normal. Quickly, Ariadne snatched her hand back, her face burning with mortification. "It was nice meeting you," she barely managed to squeak out; she looked everywhere but in his direction. "Yeah, nice meeting you too," Arthur replied in a daze. He was glad that she was not looking anywhere in his direction because he was sure his face was a very deep shade of red.

They stood there silent for a moment, waiting for the other to make the first move. Sensing this, Cobb walked forward, gently taking Ariadne by the arm and led her to the other side of the room; Arthur then turned around, the lawn chairs were over by the window. As they walked they both thought about what had just happened and wondered with the same amount of bewilderment, **'_what the hell was that_**?'

Arthur felt his face slowly cool down as the blush faded from his cheeks. He was extremely confused by what had happened; why had he reacted that way? He didn't like not understanding things, especially his own feelings. '_I've got to get better control of myself. This job is far too serious to let my emotions get in the way_,' he thought. But he couldn't help himself from taking one last glance; he looked towards the back of the room. Meanwhile, Ariadne was also confused, she'd never felt anything like that in her entire life. She looked back over her shoulder hoping to catch another glimpse of Arthur. But when her eyes reached him, she realized that he was already staring at her.

Quickly both looked the other way, blushing madly.

Finally, Cobb and Ariadne reached the desk that held the silver briefcase. He opened it and then began to explain to her how it worked. He informed her that it was through IV cords that they would be attached to the PASIV; and to not worry about it too much, it would not be injecting anything into her. When she asked what it was for then he just vaguely replied, "You ll see when the testing begins."

As Cobb showed Ariadne the PASIV Arthur was busy moving the chairs into place near them. After he was done he walked over to stand beside Cobb, and asked quietly so that Ariadne wouldn't hear, "should I start it when you re ready to begin?" All Cobb answered was, "five minutes." Arthur gave a small nod.

Cobb turned his attention back to Ariadne, who was busy analyzing the PASIV. '_Wondering about what it's supposed to do no doubt_,' Cobb thought, '_better just ease her into this then, no reason to make her unnecessarily anxious.'_

"Can I have you sit over there Ariadne? I'd like to begin the testing now," Cobb said as he gestured to the closest lawn chair. Ariadne looked up from her inspection, "sure." She started to walk over to the lawn chair, "oh, and you can take your coat off if you like. It is quite hot in here," Cobb said pleasantly, playing the part of a considerate host. Once her coat was on the back of the chair and she was seated Cobb continued, "Now could you please you lie back and relax, this is just a warm up excise before we begin the tests. I have to make sure your fully capable for the job. It's important, no vital, that you understand everything that you will have to do."

Ariadne watched as Cobb came over and attached one of the IV chords around her wrist in a bracelet. He continued to talk about training and warm up exercises but Ariadne was no longer listening. She had become aware of Arthur's close presence near by and was looking over Cobb's shoulder to see him. Arthur was standing by the PASIV, busy pressing numbers into the machine, his head down and eyes lowered in concentration. He was very attractive she realized suddenly; his thin, tall body elegant and virtually perfect. His face so handsome it made her heart pound like crazy. She couldn't understand how she had missed it all before, now it seemed obvious. She could feel herself start to warm up to the whole "team" idea.

After Arthur finished setting up the time in the PASIV, he quickly decided to sneak another quick look at Ariadne. Thankfully this time she wasn't looking in his direction, instead she was intently glaring at Cobb, speaking to him in a manner that suggested she had heard something he'd said that had disturbed her and now was questioning him about it.

Arthur took this opportunity to properly look over Ariadne. He'd noticed in his earlier inspection that she was quite cute but, much too young looking to actually be of any romantic interest. As he looked her over now though, he was stunned to realize that he had had it all wrong. She was a woman despite her big brown eyes and child like face; he could see that now in how she held herself as she argued with Cobb. She fought maturely with, cunning, intellect, wit, and confidence; she even had that spark of intelligence in her eyes. Their little fight carried on for a bit until Ariadne relaxed back into the chair, smiling at Cobb's puzzled expression, confident in her victory. '_She has a lot of promise_,' Arthur thought, '_depending on how well she does, she might even impress me.'_

Either way, this job just got a whole lot more interesting.

Cobb shook his head in surrender, "Whatever. Let s begin shall we?" He stood up from his crouched position on the floor, walked across and took a seat on the other lawn chair. "Now I'll need you to relax Ariadne," Cobb said as her attached his own IV. "Let go, let your self completely unwind. Begin by shutting your eyes."

Ariadne did as she was told but not before peeking one last look Arthur, '_You know if he s going to be around during this job, it might be worth sticking around for_.' At that thought, the warm feeling from before returned except less intense. She kept her eyes on him even as her eyelids were about to shut completely, looking at him through her eyelashes.  
As the warmth once again filled her body, she felt a strong longing towards him, to hold him, to kiss him, to be with him. Her eyes shut and she was now beginning to feel tired. Really tired.

But if she were to stay, could she win him over? Could he love her? Would he? Was it possible? So much could go wrong yet so much could go right. If she stayed it wasn't guaranteed that he would come to love her back.  
But if she didn't, she d never know.

Arthur saw that both Ariadne and Cobb were relaxed; '_five minutes in the dream should be aptitude time for Cobb to teach her the first lesson_,' he thought. So without hesitating, he pushed the large button inside the PASIV, putting them under.

Suddenly her world was ripped out from beneath her feet and she felt herself spiralling into a dark abyss.

But before she was completely gone, she thought one final thought.  
'_It's worth a shot_.'

**Disclaimer: I own nothing!**


End file.
